State Duma demands to find masterminds of Pussy Riot action

March 21, 2012, 13:35 UTC+3“It is obvious that the event in the cathedral is a matter of spreading criminal actions,” they affirmed

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MOSCOW, March 21 (Itar-Tass) —— The State Duma has made protocol instructions that contain the request about the measures, which the Investigation Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office are taking to bring to responsibility the masterminds of an escapade of the scandalous group Pussy Riot at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The document was drafted by several United Russia deputies, including Vice-Speaker Lyudmila Shvetsova, lawmakers Vladimir Krupennikov and Yelena Panina. The State Duma is expected to approve the document at the end of a plenary meeting on Wednesday.

“The indignation of thousands of Orthodox Christians was caused by a blasphemous act of vandalism, which was committed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in the morning on February 21, 2012, by several young women in masks,” the document runs. “Some reports were made in the press that the Moscow police department in the Central Administrative District opened a criminal case under Article 213 of the Criminal Code for hooliganism,” the authors of the document said.

“Meanwhile, real masterminds of this action were not found, as well as accomplices, who took pictures, helped to carry the equipment and took an interview from the participants in the action, and then spread in every possible way the information, which is seeking to discredit the Russian Orthodox Church,” the deputies stated. “It is obvious that the event in the cathedral is a matter of spreading criminal actions,” they affirmed.

“The media and the Internet have enough information that show the crime was committed under Article 282 of the Criminal Code for instigating religious hatred and strife,” the document runs. The document contains the request “to instruct the State Duma Committee for Security and Counteraction to Corruption to ask the Investigation Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office to take measures to bring to criminal responsibility all people involving in masterminding and holding a blasphemous action at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, as well as the distribution in the media and the Internet of provocative materials, which fan up hatred and strife to Orthodox believers and humiliate the human dignity of millions of Orthodox Christians.” Then the deputies should be given the relevant information.

On February 21, members of the punk group entered the church, went up on the ambo before the altar, where only clergymen can step up, put on coloured masks and began mocking at the believers. The guards took them away several minutes later. Shortly after that a video of a song, in which this outrage was taken as ‘a punk prayer’, was posted in the Internet.